Door operating mechanism



Sept. 27, 1932. B. ROBERTSON DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 17, 1950 6 Sheets-Sheet W hm Sept. 27, 1 932 I. B. ROBERTSON DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 17. 1950 5 Sh ets-Sheet 2 Sept. 27,1932 l. B. ROBERTSON DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 17,- 1930 5 Sheets-Sheet 3L Patented Sept. 27, 1932 UNITED STATES OFFICE IVY B. ROBERTSON, or CHARLOTTE, nomncenonma, ssienon or ONE-THIRD 'r FLOYD eBEsHAMmncHARLO-rm, oam-r CAROLINA nooaornaarme MECHANISM Application fiIed OctObeI 1751930. semi No. 489,405.

This invention aims to provide novel means whereby, when a vehicle approaches hingedly mounted doors, the doors will beropened, the doors closing automatically after the vehicle has passed them, the device. being of use in connection with garages, buildings. of any kind, walls, fences and other structures.

Another object of'the invention is to provide novel means for locking the doorsin 1; a closed position.

The inventionaims, further, to'provide a device of the class described, which'will be simple in construction, facile in operation, inexpensive to manufacture, simple to install 2-." and capable of withstandinglong-continued use without much attention or elaborate re-.

air. P It is within the province of the disclosure to improve generally and: to enhancewthe utility of devices of that type to which the ins vention appertains. I

With the above and other objects in view, which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination-and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed, may be made withinthe scope of so what is claimed, without departingfrom the spirit of the invention. 7

In the accompanying drawings the .preferred form of the invention has been shown, and in the said drawings;

Figure 1 is a horizontal. sectional View of the device forming the subject matter of this application, the frame and the platform,to-, gether with other parts, beingshownin top plan;

Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinalsection' on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a vertical transverse section taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2; v f v Figure 4 is a horizontal section on the line 4-4 of Figure 2, parts beingbroken away, the doors being in Open position;

Figure 5 isa transverse section on the-line 5-5 of Figure 2, remoteparts being broken away; Figure 6 is a vert1cal sect1onal=v1ew on the line 6-6 of: Figure 1, parts being broken 7 away; a Figure '7 is a vertical-sectional view of one of the door carriers and attendant parts, the view'beingtaken on the line 77 of Figure 3, parts; being broken away; i

.igure 8 isa section on the line 8+8 of Figure 7 a Figure. 9. is a perspective view showing one of-thebearings; I

- F'gurelO is an elevationof the operating member by which movement is imparted to the-doors;

1 Figure 11 is a sectional view showing a part of the locking mechanism.

.The'deviceforming thesubject matter of this application may be employed for operating garage doors, gates, and barriers of any desired kind and inany desired place. It is not necessary, therefore, to show in detail,

the building'orother structures with which the device forming the subject matter of this application is employed. In the drawings,

therefore, there is displayed a simplesupport of anydesired construction, embodying an approximately rectangular base 1;

' Vertical hollow posts are. erected on the base 1, intermediate the ends of the base. At their upperends, the posts 2 are connected by a hollowlintel 3as will be understood readily. when Figure 3 ofthe drawings is noted. Foot blocks 4 are carriediby the base 1, at the inner sides ofthe posts 2 (Figures 1, 4 and 7). .1

Cup-shaped bearings 5 (Figure 7) areseated in the foot blocks: 4. The bearings 5 receive door spindles 6.. The bearings 5. are adapted to contain a. lubricant, and therefore, the door spindles 6 are at all times thoroughly greased, the bearings 5 being readily accessible, asFigure 7 will show, so that the lubricant may be placed in them by means of an oil can or any other suitable instrumentality. 7

The spingles 6 are secured in the lower ends of" tubular door carriers 7, and these door carriers are supplied with longitudinal slots 8"(Figures Sand 2), in which are received riers 7 by means of lag screws 10, or other securing elements, mounted in the door carriers 7 and engaging both the side and the edges of the outer door sections 9, as Figure 8 will show. Inner door sections 11 are connected by hinges 12 to the inner edges of the outer door sections 9, the inner door. sections 11 being provided with handles 14 which are to be seen in Figure 3 of the drawings. The construction is such that the inner door sections 11 and the'outer door sections 9 are foldably and hingedly mounted for swing-.

ing movement beneath the lintel 3.

Reverting to Figure 7, it will be observed that upper spindles 15 are secured in the upper ends of the tubular door carriers 7, and grooved pulleys 16 are secured on the spindles 15, to turn therewith, and with the door car riers 7. Tubular sleeves 17 are secured to the upper spindles 15and pass upwardly through the lintel 3, the sleeves 17 being supplied at their lower ends with spacing flanges 18 which are interposed between the lintel 3 and the pulleys 16. Nuts 19 are threaded on the upper ends of the spindles 15 and engage the upper ends of the sleeves 17. The sleeves 17, and consequently the spindles 15, rotate within ball bearings 20 housed in the hollow lintel 3 and mounted on the bottom of-the lintel, within casings 21 located inside of the lintel and secured to the bottom of the lintel (Figures 7 and 3).

Approximately horizontal flexible elements 22 are wound in their intermediate portions about the pulleys 16. The flexible elements 22 are extended in opposite directions from the door posts 2 (Figure 2) and are secured at 23, at their ends, as shown in Figure 10, to operating members 24, in the form of bars, slidable in slots 25 (Figure 4) formed on inwardly projecting flanges 26, which form part of the posts 2, the flexible elements 22 passing through the aforesaid slots 25.

The operating members or bars 24 are pivotally connected at 60 to approximately vertical standards 27, (Figures 2 and 1) connected at their upper ends by a cross: piece 28 (Figures 2 and 1).

At their lower ends, the standards 27 are connected to a first platform 29. .The first platform 29 is mounted at its outer end (Figure 2) on pivot elements 30 carried by tubular bearings 31 (Figure 9) mounted in the base 1 at one end thereof, the bearings31 having a projecting fin 32 which keeps them from rotating. The bearings 31, which are made of metal, may be used at any place in the structure where, in the absence of the bearings, a rotatable element would have to turn in wood. The standards 27 are sustained from the first platform 29 by braces 33, shown in Figure 2, and the door posts 2 may be sustained from the base 1 by means of braces At its inner end, the first platform 29 is connected by pivot elements 35 (Figure 2) with the inner end of a second platform 36. Figure 2 shows that the inner ends of the platforms 36 and 29 are located between the posts 2. The second platform 36 may be strengthened by trusses 37, trusses being desirable in connection with the platform 36, because the platform 36 is somewhat longer than the platform 29. On its outer end, the

platform 36 has rollers'38, (Figure 2) which ride on short tracks 39 forming part of the base 1. The doors 9 and 11 close against stops 40 (Figures 2, 4, 1 and 3) carried by the second platform 36.

The first platform 29 has outwardly extended arms '41 (Figure 3) movable vertically in holes 42 (Figure 6) formed in the inner sides of the posts 2. Flexible elements 43 (Figures 3 and 6) are secured to the arms weights, as occasion may demand, to secure a proper operation of the device.

The inner door sections 11 are provided on theirupper edges, and at points near to their inner edges with rollers 47 (Figures 3 and 1) mounted to slide in angularly disposed tracks 48 (Figures 1 and 3) which are secured to the lintel 3.

A substantially vertical shaft (Figures 2 and 5) is journaled at its upper end in a bearing 49 secured to the underside of the second platform 36, nearto the inner end of the said platform. The shaft 50 is provided at its upper end with a recess in which is located a shank 51, accessible through an opening 52 (Figures 2, 4 and 1) formed in the second platform 36. In cross section, the shank 51 is triangular, or of some other peculiar shape, so that it cannot be engaged and turned by ordinary socket wrenches, 01' other common tools. arms 53 (Figures 2 and 1) on the lower end of the shaft 50. Laterally extended locking bolts 54 are pivoted at their inner ends to the arms 53. Intermediate their ends, the locking bolts 54 slide in guides 55 (Figures 11 and 5) secured to the lower ends of substantially vertical shafts 56 journaled for rotation in bearings 57 attached to the under side There are projecting of the platform 36. At their outer ends, the 1' driven upon the first platform 29, the plat- V form 29 swings downwardly on its pivotal mounting 30 (Figure 2), the platform 36 being carried downwardly, because the platforms 36 and 29 are pivotally connected at 35. When the platform 36 moves downwardly, the rollers 38 at the outer ends of it ride on the tracks 39.

lVhen the platform 29 is carried downwardly, the standards 27 are carried downwardly, and their upper ends move in the direction of the arrow A in Figure 2. The operating members 24 move in the direction of the arrow A, and the flexible elements 22 are carried along with them. Because the flexible elements 22 are wound about pulleys 16, the pulleys will be rotated,rotation being imparted to the door carriers 7 about a vertical axis. The outer door sections 9 will swing to open position, and the inner door sections 11 which are hinged at 12 to the outer door sections 9 will be opened, also, because the rollers 47 on the upper edges of the inner door sections 11 are constrained to follow the angularly arranged tracks 48 of Figure 1. The doors 9 and 11 ultimately open into approximate parallelism, as shown in Figure 4 of the drawings. The doors 9 and 11 will be held opened, so long as the vehicle is on the platform 36, because the platform 36 is connected to platform 29, as shown at 35 in Figure 2.. When, however, the vehicle rims off the platform 36 then the platform 29 will be raised by the action of the weights 46 (Figure 6), and the standards 27 will swing to the left into the position shown in Figure 2, the operating members 24 being retracted along with the flexible elements 22, the flexible elements 22 imparting reverse rotation to the door carriers 7, by way of the pulleys 16, the rollers 47 following the horizontally inclined tracks 48 into the position of Figure 1, to effect the closing of the inner door sec tions 11 as the outer door sections 9 are closed.

In the event that the operator wishes to lock the doors 9 and 11 in closed position, he imparts rotation to the shaft 50 of Figure 2 by means of a suitable key inserted through the hole 51 of the platform 36 and mounted on the shank 51 of the shaft 50. When the shaft 50 is rotated as aforesaid, its arms 53 will carry the locking bolts 5a outwardly (Figure 5) until they engage in the seats 58 of the frame 1. The platform 36, now, cannot move downwardly, the platform 29 cannot move downwardly and the doors 9 and 11 will be closed.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

In a device of the class described, a rotatably mounted member, a door carried by said member, a bar supported for sliding movement in an approximately horizontal posi tion, a flexible element connected at its ends to the bar and engaged in its intermediate 

